Semliki harpoon
The Semliki harpoon, also known as the Katanda harpoon, refers to complex harpoon heads carved from bone. It is from an archaeologic site on the Semliki River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) which dates back 90,000 years.[1]
It seemed to substantiate that fishing and an "aquatic civilization" was likely in the region across eastern and northern Africa during the wetter climatic conditions of the early to mid-Holocene, as shown by other evidence at the lakeshore site of Ishango.[2]
The site is littered with catfish bones and the harpoons are the size to catch adult catfish, so investigators suspect the fisherman came to the site every year "to catch giant catfish." [3]
It is unlikely that the harpoons are much different from those used today (see reference for photos).[4] [5]
The archaeologic site coincides with the range of the Efé Pygmies, which have been shown by mitochondrial DNA analyses to be one of the oldest races still existing on earth.
References
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